BLAD of RWBY and JNPR: Hymn of Reminiscence
by Black Fuego
Summary: It has been a fun two weeks for teams RWBY, JNPR and BLAD. Now, two days before classes begin, the three teams meet up and talk about what happened during their time away from each other. Curious as to what they did? Read and find out...
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys. Black Fuego here with the first chapter of Archipelago Adventure's replacement: Hymn of Reminiscence. It'll be only a few chapters with most, if not all, the chapters in this story being flashbacks. I honestly think I'll enjoy writing this more that the last story, and will be much shorter in both words and chapters if things work out. I hope you guys like this piece and have a great day.

Disclaimer: I don't own the RWBY series nor any other series mentioned in this story. I am, however, planning a RWBY marathon with my roommate this weekend. It's gonna be fun.

BLAD of RWBY and JNPR: Hymn of Reminiscence

Chapter 1: Onward towards Memory Lane

"Alright, this is good. I'll add this to the list," Ruby smiled while putting a piece of paper in a large binder.

It as a nice, calm day over at Beacon Academy and young team leader Ruby Rose was busy filling up a now bulging binder with all sorts of events she had planned out. It was two days before classes began and the young rose wanted to make the next few days memorable for not only her, but also her friends.

"Ok… I think I have room for one more paper full of plans before it's finished," Ruby grinned before pulling out a piece of paper from the desk she was sitting on and began writing.

"Aha! I knew I'd find you here!"

Jumping slightly at the shout, Ruby turned her head to the door to see her sister grinning broadly at her while leaning on the open passage, looking at the child with open amusement.

"Heh, surprised ya, didn't I, Sis?" Yang stated while sauntering over to the young rose. "So, what're you doing here? It's almost lunch and no one's seen you since breakfast."

"Sorry, Yang. I was busy with our plans for tomorrow and I guess I lost track of time," Ruby laughed sheepishly while pointing at the binder on the desk.

"Hey, isn't that Levy's medical binder? She's been looking for it since before break started and had to buy a new one when she and Sparky had to go to Vacuo for the first few days of vacation." Yang questioned as soon as she noticed the lavender colored item.

"It is? I thought this was Weiss's binder… I guess that explains all the medicine recipes and other doctor stuff that I found in this thing" Ruby muttered before shrugging uncaringly, "Eh, I'll switch it over after I finish and give Levy her binder back. But I do have to wonder why it was here in the first place…"

"I dunno. Probably left it here when giving us another lecture on how fusing yourself with Dust affects the human body," The brawler guessed with a grimace before shaking her head, "In any case, we gotta go. It's Seafood Saturday and I want to get the swordfish sushi before Blake eats it all."

"You go on ahead. I just need to finish this last-WHOA!"

"Sorry, Sis, but it's time to eat and it's my solemn duty as your older sister to make sure you're well fed in our dad's stead whether you like it or not," Yang stated while holding her sister over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Yang! Put me down! It wasn't funny when Ash did it to me at the ball, it isn't funny now!" Ruby cried while feebly pounding Yang on the back.

"Not happening! No off we go! Our precious oceanic treats are calling us and we have to answer it with our bellies!"

"YANG!"

-A few minutes later, cafeteria-

"You know, I find it odd that, while you do not enjoy seafood, you're ok with eating things such as prawns and shrimp," Ren commented, halting his consumption of the lobster before him to stare at Baltazar, who had a bowl of shrimp ramen before him.

"Eh, I get that a lot. I enjoy shrimp, but other kinds of fish just don't taste right to me. Even more so now since that little camping incident a few years back," Baltazar said while giving a knowing glance to a certain someone beside him, who blushed when she realized what he was talking about.

"You are not going to forget that at all, aren't you?" Weiss grumbled while looking away with a pout before going back to her seafood salad.

"I don't blame him. If your cooking's bad enough to create toxic curry, set kitchens on fire, and even make toast explode in shards of ice, then I fear for whoever gets you to cook for them," Jaune joked while pointing a fried fish at the heiress, causing her to fume and the others to laugh.

"Ha-ha, laugh it up. For your information, my cooking skills have vastly improved over break and now I can cook many dishes without any problem what so ever!" Weiss countered confidently.

"In other words, she found out how to use the microwave properly." Blake droned while taking a bite of her sushi, not looking away from her book, causing the others to laugh once more and Weiss to look at her with a betrayed expression.

"Haha! Nice burn, Kitten," Ash laughed while holding a fist up to the Faunus beside him, who set her chopsticks down to bump her own fist with his,

"I try, Fiend," Blake smirked.

"You know, it's nice to see you two getting along much better now compared to how it was at the beginning of the semester," Levy spoke up, causing the others to look at her briefly before focusing at the axe-man and cat-woman.

"Levy's got a point. You didn't like Ash all that much because of how much of a flirty womanizer he is, and now here you are, fist bumping him like you two are buds. It's awesome," Nora grinned.

"We reached a bit of an understanding when I was sent to give him the blueprints to his old weapon. I still get annoyed by his antics, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to," Blake shrugged.

"At least you guys got along better than how Ruby and Weiss did originally. They were at each other's throats during initiation, according to Sparky, and the only reason why they reconciled so quickly was because of their shared connection to a certain little tiger they're both so fond of," Yang stated with a smirk.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Ruby cried out defensively with a bright blush on her face.

"It means you should hurry up and admit that you like my goof of a surrogate brother, you dunce. You got me to admit my feelings and now it's your turn." Weiss explained in a teasing tone. "If you're lucky, you might get a confession during the heat of battle, like I did."

"Oh come on, Weiss, be realistic. What are the chances of us being forced to fight an army of robots and get a confession of love out of it happening again?" Jaune questioned in a skeptic tone, not at all caring about the glowing blush on Ruby's face.

"Probably about the same chance as getting into a fight against an Ursa Major and win and end up giving his partner a gorgeous ring he made by hand and asked her out later that night," Pyrrha spoke up with a small smile and a slight joking tone, but all were aware of just how happy she was when that day happened.

"Or getting a confession during midterms while the girl making the confession was defending your honor from a bunch of bullies," Ren stated with a smirk while giving Nora an endearing look, who simply beamed back and lightly touched his nose, making a small 'boop' sound in the process.

"Can we please not talk about this now?!" Ruby shouted, her face now as red as her cloak and would've ran away if it wasn't for the fact that her sister would bring her back.

"Alright guys, take it easy. Let's change the subject now, for Ru's sake," Dia suggested, causing Ruby to stare at her gratefully.

"Aww, you're no fun, Diantha! And you dare call yourself a blonde!" Yang whined.

"Stop calling me Diantha! I told you guys that I hate that name! It's too freakin' girly for crying out loud!" The archer cried out.

"You're ok with fighting in a dress, but not ok with being called by your full name?" Levy spoke up curiously.

"Uh…I don't think you should be talking when it comes to names, Levy." Blake said.

"You're telling me. Levy's full name's so long, it's a doozy! It must've taken you forever to write it in your underwear as a kid," Nora said in wonderment.

"Nora!" The girls, sans Levy, cried out hysterically, while the guys had to cover their mouths in order to not let the girls hear them laughing.

"Mama had a stamp." The medic said simply.

"Really? I wish my mom had one for me. I can't even begin to tell you guys how often I lost my-"

"Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah! N-Now's not the place for talking about this, Nora!" Pyrrha shouted nervously while flailing her arms in front of the oblivious bomber.

"Hehehe, dudes, this is hilarious! Its crap like this that makes me happy to hang out with you all!" Ash snickered.

"Does said crap include chucking Ren over Beacon Cliffs while he was in a giant cradle, you being chased by an angry Nora alongside Yang and Pyrrha after the club incident, being forced to fight your leader for his position, or hosting the beauty pageants for the Hunter's Fair and being so happy about it you kissed your now ex-girlfriend Velvet and wanted to make a bronze statue in the image of our headmaster as a thank-you for making you the host?" Jaune listed off, causing Ren to flinch when he heard the first part of it.

"Not to mention making money off of when some of us are getting together," Baltazar droned.

"Hey, I only made money on Jauney and Nicky getting together. Lotus and Levs got the cash from you and the Ice Queen while I was in charge of Bombette and Lotus. I couldn't get any money in the last one since I was the bookie," Ash stated with a glare.

"Hmm…good point," Baltazar conceded with a shrug.

"Hey guys, I just realized something!" Yang spoke up, causing everyone to focus on her. "You all know that we've spent a lot of time together during the past semester, but I just realized that none of us really hung out all together during break until a few days ago."

"Well we did have our own things to take care of, Yang. Some of us were even out of the kingdom for a good portion of the break." Ren pointed out.

"Yeah. I had to go back to my village for a week for a bit of personal training with my chief there, Jaune, Pyrrha, Chief and Levy were all gone to see their families, and even after we came back, we essentially jumped into other crap and didn't have time to hang out until it was time to go to the beach with everyone a couple days ago." Dia explained.

"Exactly! I wanna know what you guys did over break! I really wanna know if you guys meet someone cool or learned some new tricks or something!" Yang grinned.

"And what's in it for us?" Jaune asked.

"I'll tell you guys about the incidents that happened last week involving Ruby and Weiss. They were hilarious!" The brawler laughed.

"SIS, NO!" DON'T YOU DARE, YOU FIEND!" The red and white pair shouted, causing everyone to be very interested in Yang's proposal.

"Oh? Seems like something interesting happened during break that they don't want anyone to know. Interesting…" Ash grinned sinisterly.

"Blake, was what happened last week really bad enough to warrant a reaction like they did?" Levy questioned curiously.

"I don't really know much about what happened during Ruby's little adventure, but the incident with Weiss was a bit of a big thing. I think you all should know about it as well." Blake said calmly, trying not to smile at the shocked faces on her teammates' faces.

"Alright then, you got yourself a deal, Sunny!" Ash shouted.

"Excellent!" Yang grinned, ignoring the groans from the now depressed girls behind her. "Now I suggest we clean up our table, grab some drinks and find somewhere comfortable to swap stories. We're gonna be in for a long afternoon!"

"Yay! Story time!" Nora cheered, causing everyone but Weiss and Ruby to laugh at her exuberance.

"Ruby, when this is all over, please allow me to kill your sister…" Weiss sighed as she pressed her fingers on her forehead to try and alleviate the headache that was forming.

"Only if you let me join you," Ruby groaned before the pair got up alongside with the others to prepare for the torture that was to come.

Author's note:

And here it is, the first part of the interlude for my BLAD of RWBY and JNPR series. This one will not take me long to finish, and I'm expecting this story to be at least ten chapters before it's finished. I have a feeling that this story will end up being much better than it's now vanished predecessor, and I truly hope you all enjoyed this new member of the BLAD of RWBY and JNPR family.

Speaking of my first story, to think it's been a year since I've uploaded the first chapter of The BLAD of RWBY and JNPR, and I still can't believe how popular it is. Over 26,000 views, 92 faves, 93 follows, 75 reviews, and a part of 2 communities, one of which is home to some of the best RWBY fanfics out there. I am truly honored that so many people liked it so much. So in honor of that, I fixed up BLAD of RWBY and JNPR as much as I can and pretty much re-uploaded all the chapters, all hopefully improved with stuff added and removed to accommodate for all the changes made in the RWBY-verse and all the plans up to this point. I also changed up my character bios a little for the change as well. I truly hope that people continue liking my works and I ask you all to wish me luck when I enter Volume 2. Expect a lot of hilarious flashbacks in this story and I'll see you all soon!

P.S. Also, Vale of Halloween is going to be on hold for a bit, mainly because I lost motivation for it and I don't want to force a half-assed ending for it. It'll be done, but it'll take some time before I get it properly finished. See you all later for the next chapter of this, Petting Zoo, and Life at Beacon!


	2. Chapter 2

Heyo, mates! It's been a while! Black Fuego is here with the next installment of Hymn of Reminiscence! Sorry it's been so long since my last update, but with work, Thanksgiving with the family, and of course, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Persona Q: Shadows of the Labyrinth, I've been a bit busy. I…also caved and bought myself a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles after watching Chuggaconnroy's Let's Play of it. Found two used, good copies of it in my local Gamestop and I couldn't believe my luck! Do you guys know how rare that game is? And expensive! Best 55 bucks I spent, though. Despite all the distractions, though, I will do my best to continue writing in a fairly good pace. With that out of the way, though, I welcome you to the next chapter of my story and I hope you enjoy reading it. Also, just in case you didn't notice my revisions in my old story, I changed Sarah's name to Cera. Still pronounced the same way but I decided to give her an actual color name, with Cera being short for Cereza, the Spanish word for cherry. Just a heads up.

Disclaimer: I don't own the RWBY series nor any other series that may be mentioned in this fic. I do, however, recommend any Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire players who may read this to NOT USE YOUR MASTERBALL ON KYOGRE OR GROUDON! I made that mistake and I paid for it in the forms of frustration and multiple soft resets. There's another Pokémon out there that you're gonna have to fight post game that is so difficult to catch that I'd recommend using the masterball on it instead if you don't want a huge hassle. Trust me on this… stupid freaking space virus meteor thing…

Hymn of Reminiscence Chapter 2: Ruby's Babysitting Adventure.

"Alright now! I got us all some drinks and made our room nice and comfortable, now let's begin with the story swapping!" Yang announced with a wide grin while raising a bottle of cola in the air, causing everyone else to smile and agree with her while Ruby and Weiss looked miserable.

The three teams were sitting around team RWBY's room ready to tell each other about their vacations, with RWBY sitting around Weiss and Ruby's bunk, JNPR by Blake and Yang's bunk, and team BLAD lounging near the entrance. All the teams were either sitting on the beds, chairs or beanbags chairs provided by the powerhouse of BLAD, and were all comfortably waiting to begin.

"Thanks for the cola, Sunny! You always know where to get the good stuff!" Ash grinned while raising his own bottle, happily relaxing on one of his beanbags chairs with his partner sitting on another one beside him and the cousins by the desk, with Levy sitting on the chair and Baltazar leaning on the wall beside it.

"Not a problem, man! You got the seats, I got the drinks!" Yang called back before jumping into her own oversized beanbag and sighed in content, with Blake sitting in a chair next to her, chuckling in amusement, while Ruby and Weiss had clouds of depression on their heads whilst sitting on the heiress's bed.

"And we thank you for that you two. Now, how about we get into the story telling?" Pyrrha asked politely, her and Jaune sitting on Blake's bed while Ren and Nora were sharing a beanbag on the ground.

"Of course! And I can't think of a better way to begin this shindig than to tell you guys about what happened to Ruby almost immediately after break started!" Yang grinned.

"Yang! Can we please not start with that? Ruby pleaded, river of tears falling from her face as she begged her sister with little success.

"Oh come on, Ruby, it couldn't have been that bad…" Jaune said.

"You try dealing with a bunch of crazy super kids that use their powers to play games and search the entire city to find a couple of the wildest kids they had!" Ruby shouted hysterically, causing the others to stare at her oddly.

"Uh…What?" Dia muttered eloquently.

"Oh! You were the one Vel asked to babysit those kids at the daycare she volunteers! I was wondering who she got to cover for her…" Ash exclaimed, causing Ruby to perk up and zoom towards the unsuspecting redhead.

"You know my pain!? Please! Help me convince the others what horrible monsters those little things are! Please! I'm begging you!" The frantic leader begged, grabbing her friend's hands and squeezed them tightly in hopes that he would comply, and getting amused looks from the others in the process.

"Now there's a pair that I did not see coming," Blake joked dryly.

"I'd ship it," Nora grinned, unaware of the fiery glare she was getting from a certain dragon girl.

"What would we call a pairing like that…?" Levy pondered with her hand cupping her face.

"Molten Petals?" Weiss shrugged, going along with the joke and intentionally infuriating her blonde teammate more.

"Oooh, good one," Baltazar and Ren muttered while clapping towards the heiress in approval.

"Thank you. I try…" Weiss smirked while getting off of her bed and did a quick curtsy, much to her friends' amusement and a certain one's annoyance.

"Can we please not talk about this!?" Yang shouted, small embers floating around her as she yelled, causing almost everyone to relent with their fun, less they end up setting the room on fire.

"Hey, dudes? What's going on?" Ash spoke up curiously, not noticing the exchange that happened due to his own amusement towards the desperate child leader before him.

"Nothing… Don't worry about it," Yang grumbled as she glared at her snickering friends.

"Ooook then…" Ash droned before shrugging, "Weird dudes and odd freak-outs aside, I find it odd that you don't like the kids at Konohana Daycare, Rosie. They're pretty cool and lots of fun to be with as long as you know how to handle it."

"There's a secret!?" Ruby screamed, causing her sensitive hearing friends to flinch for a bit, before grabbing his shoulders and zoomed her face towards his own, making her sister very uncomfortable for seeing such a sight.

"Please! Tell me the secret! I'll do anything!" Ruby pleaded, completely unaware of how close she was to the notorious flirt of Beacon.

"Uhh…sure. I'll tell you, but you need to do a couple things in return," Ash said, nervous not with the young girl being so close to him, but with something else entirely.

"What?! What are they!?"

"First thing: Please don't get too close to me when your sister's around. I'd like to live a few more years before I turn into a smoldering pile of ash…hehe," The powerhouse requested, chuckling slightly at the pun he made in the end.

Hearing that, Ruby blinked a couple times in confusion before realizing where she was. With a quick squeak of surprise, the young leader jumped away from the powerhouse and began apologizing, with the redhead waving off the words and the blonde brawler now considerably calmer than before.

"Alright, now. The other thing I want is for your sister to give me some cooking lessons when she's able to from time to time. Nothing complicated, but I do want to learn a few good dishes," Ash suggested, getting odd stares from the others in the process.

"Uh…why do you want to learn how to cook?" Yang asked in confusion.

"Ladies love a guy who can cook. If you don't believe me, let me remind you that the other dudes here are fairly good cooks themselves. Not as good as you and Levs, but pretty skilled nevertheless," Ash explained while gesturing to the taken guys, who smiled in amusement when they heard the complement.

"But why Yang? You got two good cooks in your team, so why not ask them?" Nora questioned curiously.

"They got another student, and they need to teach her a _lot_ before it is safe to leave her alone in the kitchen," Ash stated while giving Weiss a knowing glance, which got a glare in response.

"Deal!" Ruby shouted, not allowing Yang to speak up at all, before continuing on. "So tell me the secret for controlling the little horrors known as kids! Please!"

"Ah-ah-ah! Wait a minute there, Rosie," Ash grinned while wagging his finger, "I can't help you out until I know the whole story, so I'd like it if we finally get to hear what happened to you before I give you the advice. Preferably when all this started if you don't mind."

"That was where I was gonna kick it off anyways, so no worries there, Ash," Yang spoke up with her arms crossed, smirking at her sister's betrayed expression.

"Sis, no! Please!"

"Sorry, Ruby, but you made the deal, and if he wants to know what happened in order to help, then that's the way it has to be," Yang grinned mischievously, causing Ruby to cry dramatically.

"Heh, this'll be good," Dia chuckled while leaning in to listen better.

"Alright, guys, this all started almost as soon as finals were all over and done with," Yang began, "We were coming out of Dr. Oobleck's class and most of you had speed off to pack, while the rest of us stayed behind and chatted. It was during then that Velvet came up to us with her request…"

_-Flashback, last day of finals, end of the last final, outside Oobleck's classroom-_

"_Ahh! So glad we're done with all those exams!" Yang sighed in content while stretching her arms high._

_"It is good that we're done, and now we can relax for a while before the next semester starts," Weiss agreed with a nod._

_"It's a shame that most of our friends will be either busy with their own things or out of the kingdom for most of break, though…" Blake spoke up._

_"Yeah, you're right…" Ruby sighed sadly, "Jaune's going to visit his family, Pyrrha's on a small trip, Levy and Baltazar are heading to Vacuo tomorrow and who knows where Dia's adventuring to, but that doesn't leave us with much options on who to hang out for break…"_

_"Nora and Ren will be spending a lot of time together so it's best not to intrude on them. As for Ash…" Blake added on, trailing off at the mention of one of her least favorite friends, "I'd…preferred if we didn't hang out with that fiend too much. Besides, he was planning to do a little training himself to get more control over his semblance if I remember right, so I suggest we don't bother him either."_

_"Still not liking Ash all that much, Blake? I thought you two were getting along better now?" Weiss asked in confusion._

_"We are, but some of his antics still don't sit right with me…" The shadow kunoichi muttered with her arms crossed._

_"Eh, that's understandable," Yang shrugged before grinning widely, "Now…who wants some grub?! I hear A Simple Wok as a great deal on shrimp and beef ramen today and-"_

_"Oh! Excuse me!" A frantic voice called out, and the girls turned to see Velvet approaching them with a worried expression on her face._

_"Velvet? What's wrong? Are you ok?" Ruby asked in a concern tone._

_"I'm fine, thanks for asking. I just need one of you to help me with something," The upperclassman requested._

_"Is Cardin picking on you again? Because if he is, we'll set him straight," Yang suggested with a fierce grin and clashed her fists together._

_"Huh? Oh, no, no, no! It's not that!" Velvet exclaimed in surprise with her arms forward and hand shaking wildly, "I just need help with a little volunteer work that I do, nothing more!"_

_"Are you talking about that daycare center you normally go to over at downtown Vale?" Weiss guessed._

_"That's right!" Velvet confirmed, "I volunteered myself to help out on the last day, but my team was called for a quick, last minute mission. We leave tonight and return in a few days from now, meaning that I'll miss my appointment with the kids and Ms. Sakuya doesn't have any other volunteers that are available on that day!" _

_"Oh…that sucks," Yang winced, "How come you're not going to Ash about this? He's the one you usually go to when this happens. He loves kids."_

_"I did, but he isn't able to because his mother's coming over this weekend and taking him on a quick weekend camping trip at the Emerald Forest starting tomorrow. He won't be able to make it back in time to watch the kids!" Velvet exclaimed, upset that her ex wasn't able to help out._

_"And with no one else to turn to, you came to us hoping we can help, right?" Weiss guessed before adopting an apologetic expression. "Sorry, Velvet. I'd love to help you, but I don't think I can help you with this. I was barely able to take care of my own siblings growing up, most of the time not even seeing either my blood sister or my godbrother or sister at the same time. I'd make a terrible sitter."_

_"I can't help either, Velvet. I'm…not all that good with kids…" Blake muttered, looking a little uncomfortable at the thought of watching over a bunch of children._

_"And I'm still banned from entering the center because of the last time you asked me to do this, remember?" Yang stated before pouting, "Which makes no sense if you ask me. All I did was try and teach a few kids how to swim…"_

_"Yeah, by pushing them right into the water, Sis…" Ruby said dryly with her hands on her hips._

_"It worked with you, didn't it?" Yang retorted with a quirked eyebrow. _

_"No it didn't! I nearly drowned five times before Dad made you stop and Uncle Qrow taught me instead!" The little reaper exclaimed before turning to the still troubled rabbit girl. "I guess, if no one is able to do it, I can do it, Velvet. I'm sure I can handle it no problem!"_

_"Really! You will?! Oh, thank you, Ruby, you're a lifesaver!" Velvet exclaimed while giving Ruby a tight hug, which she happily returned._

_"No problem, Velvet! So where do I go and when do I have to be there?!" Ruby asked politely as she ended the hug._

_"You need to head over to Konohana Daycare Center by ten on Sunday, that's the last day of daycare before it's closed for a couple weeks. You'll need to take watch over them until around three. That's when the parents come. Think you can handle it?" Velvet explained._

_"Of course! After all, who better to take care of a kid, than a kid?!" Ruby grinned confidently, unaware of the looks she was getting from her teammates._

_"She has no idea what she's in for, does she?" Weiss asked dryly._

_"Nope. She's never done a babysitting job in her life, unlike the two of us, due to her being the youngest." Yang confirmed._

_"Do you think it's a good idea to leave her alone with a bunch of kids?" Blake asked in concern._

_"Well you two don't like babysitting all that much and I can't even enter the place anymore, not to mention the only other people who can even attempt to do something like this aren't around at the moment," Yang explained before her eyes went wide as a thought ran through her head. "However, I think I know someone who can help…"_

_"Really? Who?" Blake asked, while Weiss's eyes went wide as well as she realized who she was talking about._

_"Oh that's right! I forgot we were asked to look after him for a bit." The Dust fencer spoke up before nodding in agreement, "I approve. He's used to watching over others, so he'll be very helpful with Ruby's task."_

_"Uh-huh. Exactly what I was thinking, Weiss. If anyone's able to help Ruby out and guide her in the ways of babysitting, it's him." Yang grinned._

_"Can one of you tell me who it is that's going with Ruby to help her…?" Blake grumbled in irritation, catching the attention of the others, including her leader and fellow Faunus._

_"Charcoal. Who else?" Weiss and Yang stated simultaneously, causing Velvet to look confused, Ruby to act excited, and Blake to stare at her two friends blankly before speaking up once more in a dead tone._

_"…What?"_

_-End Flashback-_

"You assigned a cat to be Ruby's daycare assistant?" Ren questioned incredulously, with his team sharing his actions.

"That was actually a pretty good idea," Levy spoke up. "Charcoal was trained as a caretaker alongside a recon specialist so he knows a lot about taking care of children."

"It helps that he watched over both Cody and Cera with Pop practically since he was born. Seven years is a lot of experience, you can't deny that…" Baltazar pointed out.

"…I don't even know what to say to that." Jaune muttered.

"Ah, don't worry about it. All you need to know that Charcoal is a much better babysitter than my sister will ever be," Yang grinned, causing Ruby to glare at her fiercely before she turned away with her arms crossed.

"Hey, were is the cute kitty anyways? I haven't seen him in a long time," Nora asked curiously.

"He's with Uncle Bo at the moment. I doubt we'll be seeing him until Monday at least…" Weiss explained.

"Aww, phooey…" Nora pouted, causing Ren to chuckle at her disappointment.

"So, what happens next? When she got to the center, did things go south immediately or was it more of a snowball effect?" Ash asked.

"Oh things did not start well for my cute little sister at all," Yang grinned while rubbing the young leader's head, causing her to grumble and try to swat her sister's hand away. "I led her to the center and she felt very confident in what she was about to do, but as soon as she was left alone, that's when things went bad, mainly because Velvet neglected to mention one little thing about the daycare…"

-_Flashback, Downtown Vale, Outside Konohana Daycare, around ten in the morning-_

_"Well, Sis, here it is! This is where you'll spend your next few hours dealing with the only beings in the world that are shorter than you!" Yang teased while gesturing to the building before them, which had a fence and a yard in front of it, complete with a small swing-set, slide, monkey-bars, and other park-like attractions._

_"Ha ha, very funny, Yang," Ruby replied sarcastically while Charcoal simply sat on her head and looked down at her curiously. "I have you know that I've been growing a lot now lately, and it's all thanks to my milk!" _

_"Oh your milk's making something grow alright, and it ain't your height," Yang grinned with a bit of pride in her voice while looking at Ruby's body, causing her to stare at the blonde brawler oddly._

_"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" The young leader asked as Charcoal shook its head at the little rose's naivety._

_"I'll tell you later. But for now…"Yang grinned before pushing her sister to the entrance, causing Charcoal to hop off her head and stand next to her stumbling form, "You got some kids to take care of! Good luck, Ruby! You're gonna need it!"_

_With that, the fiery blonde turned around and left, waving goodbye to Ruby in the process. The young rose waved goodbye as well with a perplexed expression while the little back cat beside her looked up and stared at her blankly for a moment. Still confused, she turned around and headed towards the entrance, where she could easily hear the sounds of kids shouting and playing. Smiling to herself, she brought her hand to the door and knocked._

_*knock, knock*_

_"Uh…Excuse me! I'm here for the volunteer job! Hello?" Ruby cried out both politely and unsurely. She had no idea what was about to happen, but all she knows is that she has about to have some fun with a bunch of kids. It couldn't be that hard, right?_

_"Yes! Just a moment!" A voice called out and a moment later, a tall, hazel eyed woman came out of the door, wearing what looked like an ornate yutaka with a flower design on it, long, flowing black hair, fair skin and a pair of what looked like sandals along with some socks. The woman blinked a couple times in confusion before smiling widely._

_"Oh! You must be Velvet's replacement! Please, come in! And bring your cat, as well! The kids love pets!" The woman said happily while ushering her new guest inside._

_"Uh…thanks, ma'am." Ruby replied unsurely as she and Charcoal entered the room, both looking around to see many kids playing around and the room itself being quite big with all sorts of things a typical daycare has, including a drawing table, cubbies for their shoes, a couple long tables for snacks, and even holders for their backpacks._

_"Oh, no need to be so formal, sweetie. Just call me Sakuya, and welcome to my mother's daycare," Sakuya smiled kindly while gesturing to her center._

_"Thank you for having me. My name is Ruby and this is my friend Charcoal." Ruby said while gesturing to the black cat, who was now sitting on her shoulder, before the both of them smiled back, "We are here to help you out in any way we can as Velvet's replacements, so no need to worry."_

_"Mow Ma-Mow!" Charcoal responded enthusiastically, causing Sakuya to stare at it in quick surprise._

_"Oh wow, I didn't expect to have such an intelligent animal to be coming here! Now this is exciting!" Sakuya said happily before turning to Ruby curiously, "And if you are one of Velvet's friends, then that means you're a student of Beacon Academy. If you don't mind me asking…Aren't you a little young to be a student at such a dangerous school?"_

_"Yes… Yes I am, but due to a certain…incident…a few months back, the headmaster allowed me to go Beacon alongside my big sister and I gotta say, that was the best thing that ever happened to me," Ruby grinned while reminiscing what happened that got her that early enrollment. _

_"Impressive. If Headmaster Ozpin thinks you're that good, then I'm sure you'll handle these children wonderfully," The caretaker smiled once more before turning to the kids. "Ok children! Gather around! Our new guest for the last day is finally here!" _

_"Yay!" The children cheered before all of them rushed over to the woman and young teen, all of them staring at the pair excitedly. _

_Sakuya smiled, happy to see all her charges happy and energetic, before speaking up once more, "Children, I'd like to introduce to you all to Ruby, our new friend for the last day of daycare! She, along with her pet cat Charcoal, will be watching over you while I go and finish off my errands! Now I want you to be good little boys and girls and do whatever Ms. Ruby tells you all, ok?"_

_"Ok!" The kids cried out happily while Ruby blinked a couple times in confusion before turning to Sakuya unsurely._

_"You're leaving me here alone with them?" Ruby asked._

_"That's right!," The caretaker nodded, "You see, these children are special, and I often leave my volunteers alone with them so that they can get some experience on how to handle little ones like them. This is why I request Ozpin to send me some of his students to volunteer here. We always get the best help there and we have very little problems from whoever we get…except for one certain individual that came to replace Velvet a couple months ago… She was great and the children loved her, but her methods are a little…extreme for them… Even if they did like it…" _

_"Oh? Eh…hehehe…wonder who that could be…" Ruby laughed nervously, realizing that it was her sister that she was talking about._

_"In any case, I thank you for coming and I wish you luck with these kids. They can be quite the handful if they get rowdy enough," Sakuya grinned._

_"No worries, ma'am. I will take care of these kids no problem!" Ruby stated confidently while Charcoal simply stared at the young leader in amusement._

_"I'm sure you will…" Sakuya nodded once more before turning to the kids, "Alright, children, I'll be back at around two, one hour before your parents arrive, so be on your best behavior and have fun with Ms. Ruby! I'll see you all later!" _

_"Bye, Ms. Sakuya!" The children cheered once more._

_With one more nod and a kind smile, Sakuya brought her hands together in what looked like a prayer formation and in almost an instant, pink flower petals began flying all around her, covering her entire body. A moment later, the petals suddenly blew away from her and, surprisingly enough, her body was gone, as if she wasn't there to begin with._

_"Wow… A teleporting semblance. That's awesome…" Ruby muttered in awe before turning to the kids, unaware of the mischievous stares on their faces. "Alright kids, who's ready to have fun!?"_

_"We do!" They exclaimed with their hands up high and devious twinkles in their eyes. While Ruby was unaware about the smiles and eyes, Charcoal noticed and wisely walked away from the apparently doomed rose._

_"Alright then, what do you want to play?" Ruby asked politely, kneeling down to the kids and smiled at them._

_"I got a game we can play," A boy with spiky, silver colored hair, an ice blue t-shirt with matching shorts and blue shoes, said with his hands behind his hand._

_"Oh? And what game is that?" Ruby grinned, not noticing the cloud of mist forming around the child._

_"Freeze Tag!" _

_*Fwoosh!*_

_"KYAA! COLD!"_

_-End Flashback-_

"Turned into a block of ice, eh? I know that feeling…" Jaune muttered in sympathy while glancing at Weiss, who looked away in mild shame as she recalled the time she froze him the week before midterms because of a bet he, Ren and Baltazar were doing thanks to Ash.

"I said I was sorry…" Weiss mumbled.

"So you had no idea that Konohana Daycare was Vale's most well know daycare for children who unlocked their aura and semblance, did you?" Ash smirked.

"Well how was I supposed to know? No one told me anything about that!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Because we thought you knew. Not many people are unaware of what kind of children Konohana Daycare watches over…" Blake stated.

"Well she knows now. Especially with everything they did to her," Yang grinned, causing Ruby to glare at her heatedly, but was completely ignored.

"Oh boy, this I have to know… Tell us everything!" Ash grinned

"Down, Ash. You're getting too hyped over this," Baltazar muttered in an amused tone.

"Oh, come on, dude! How often do you get to see a younger sibling suffer the torment that we older siblings get?! I believe that this is justifiable hype right here!" The redhead cried out with a laugh.

"And once again I am both happy and sad that I have no siblings or even cousins so that I can understand your plight…" Dia stated with a wry smile and her arms crossed.

"Some would consider you lucky in that regard, Dia," Jaune said with grimace, recalling the torture he got from his sisters.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before," Dia waived off before turning to the sisters, "So what else happened to little Ru? I think she mentioned looking around the city for a bunch of kids earlier. Is it the next part?"

"Kinda…? I had a little bit of a break before that happened, surprisingly enough, because it was lunch time…" Ruby sighed, surprising the others since they weren't expecting her to actually partake in the storytelling. "I had to play a lot of 'games' with the kids after I was thawed out and I gotta say, they were really rough! I can't tell you how many times my cloaked was set on fire or nearly crushed by rocks just for playing Hot Potato and Rock Paper Scissors! Those kids are insane!" The young leader then let off another sigh and began to smile a little, "At least I managed to be friends with one of the kids before the big search happened. I swear I wouldn't've been able to find those kids if it wasn't for her…"

_-Flashback, Konohana Daycare-_

_Ruby slumped on a nearby table with an exhausted sigh, various sorts of wounds and such on her person as she desperately wished for the day to be over. All throughout the past two hours the young rose was forced to play a lot of exhausting and unexpected games. She had no idea the kids were able to use their aura and semblances and now she wish she knew earlier so she would've said no to Velvet when she asked for help. It might've been mean yes, but she'd rather deal with an upset friend instead of a bunch of wild children._

_As soon as that thought ran though her mind she slammed her head on the table with a loud thump. Who was she kidding? Of course she'd still say yes even if she knew about the kids beforehand. She knew she can't say no even if she didn't want to do it. She was too nice to say no as long as she didn't have other plans. And as long as she made her friends happy, she'd do whatever they asked her as long as it wasn't unreasonable, and this, while difficult, wasn't unreasonable._

_"Still feels like I went a round against Pyrrha without my sweetheart though…" Ruby muttered, turning to her cloak, noticed that a small bit of it was on fire, licked her index finger and thumb and snuffed the flame out before slamming her head on the table once more, causing a bit of dirt and pebbles to fall off her dusty hair._

_"Kukukuku…"_

_"Oh don't even start with me, you lazy fuzzball! You were supposed to help me but all you did was stand around!" Ruby shouted to the snickering cat on the table, who simply stared at her in amusement before curling up and proceeded to take a nap, further irritating the leader._

_"And now you're gonna take a nap!? I know cats tend to do their own thing but you have to help me out here! Please!" _

_"You know, talking to animals is usually a sign that you're going crazy…" An amused child's voice stated from beside Ruby, and the rose didn't even flinch at the voice because she was so tired._

_"Charcoal's not an ordinary animal, but I think he likes to see people suffering more often than not. He must've got it from his master…" Ruby grumbled before turning to the voice, and her eyes widened in surprise as to who it was that was talking to her. "Hey… Aren't you the one that helped me out before I was nearly turned into a pancake when I was playing Rock Paper Scissors with that beefy little eight year old?"_

_"Huh? You remembered? I thought you'd forget about that. Didn't you hit your head?" The child asked in a wondering tone._

_"Almost, but not quite. Besides, it's kinda hard to forget a kid that's able to save your butt without even being able to see…" Ruby said in a mild tone of disbelief as she stared at the kid before her. The little one had obsidian colored hair tied in a bun, a fancy green dress and headband, and no shoes to call her own. Her eyes were grey and blank, indicating that she truly was blind, and Ruby had a hard time believing that such a frail looking girl would be the only one that was nice to her and save her from the other super kids, but this girl was far from frail._

_"Yup! People say that blind people can't do anything, but they have yet to meet the soon to be famous huntress Zhen Lin!" The child exclaimed with a fist in the air, prompting Ruby to smile at her enthusiasm._

_"Hehe… Well you won't get any argument from me, Lin. You are by far the strongest kid I've met, and I'm sure you'll prove to the world how strong a blind huntress can truly be," Ruby smiled._

_"Yup! If I can save the girl that took on Roman Torchwick from being crushed by one of Rocko's RPS showdowns, then I will have no problem becoming a huntress!" The girl exclaimed happily, causing Ruby to look at her in surprise._

_"Huh? You know about that?" Ruby asked._

_"Yeah! You're the one who saved my grandpa from those bad guys and drove them out of one of his stores, after all!" Lin explained, surprising Ruby once more._

_"Really? The shopkeep's your grandpa…?" The young leader muttered before shrugging. "Huh, good to know. So what are you doing here anyways, Lin? I would've thought you'd try to find more ways to bury that kid that froze me earlier or the one that set me on fire under a bunch of rocks right now…"_

_The blind child shook her head before explaining, "Kasai and Moroz were getting pretty rowdy and it was too much work to calm them down, so I had Titania handle them. This kind of stuff happens from time to time. I'm surprised you didn't know about this. Didn't Ms. Velvet or Mr. Ash tell you about us?"_

_"Nope. I know Velvet volunteers here a lot and usually has Ash replace her whenever she's on a mission, but that's it." Ruby said before sighing in depression, "Though now I wish I was told about you guys and the fact that you kids like to use your aura and semblances when playing around. That could've saved me a lot of trouble…"_

_"Oh well. Better late than never, eh?" Lin shrugged, trying and failing to cheer her grandfather's hero up when another girl rushed over to Ruby with a panic expression._

_"Ms. Ruby, Ms. Ruby! There's something I need to tell you!" The girl shouted._

_"Huh? What is it?" Ruby asked, feeling a sense of dread coming towards her and not noticing Charcoal lifting its head to stare at the child expectedly._

_"It's Kasai, Moroz and Titania! They're gone!"_

_"WHAT?!" Both Ruby and Lin cried out in alarm, and even Charcoal began to worry as it stood straight up._

_"Kasai and Moroz were having another fight outside when we were eating and accidently blew up the fence again! Then they got excited and ran out the fence to play! Titania went after them after she fixed the fence but she hasn't come back! We have to find them before Ms. Sakuya gets back or else we'll get in trouble!" The girl explained rapidly._

_"Oh man…Why does this stuff only happen to me…?" Ruby groaned before getting up from her seat. "Alright, I'll find them, but I'm going to need some help."_

_"Let me help! My semblance can help so long as I'm standing on the ground!" Lin said with her hand up. _

_"Ok, you'll help. I have to call my team to let them know what happened." Ruby said before turning to the child that told her about the escape. "Daisy, get your friends in here and don't leave here until I get back!" _

_She then turned her head to Charcoal, who stared back at her seriously, "Charcoal, you're in charge! Make sure the kids don't do anything reckless, ok?!"_

_"Meow!" The black cat shouted with a salute._

_"Alright now, let's go!" Ruby shouted, grabbing the blind child and rushed out of the door with a trail of rose petals, beginning her search for the three kids. As she left, she took one more look at the daycare, the fence where the hole was made to be exact, and quirked an eyebrow at what was used to seal the opening._

_"Huh… A wall of swords. That's something you don't see every day…"_

_-Flashback End-_

"…You took a blind eight year old with you to look for a trio of element manipulating super kids and left the cat in charge of watching over the rest of the super kids?" Nora summarized in a deadpanned tone before shrugging uncaringly, "Eh, seems legit to me."

"I question the fact that a blind child managed to help you all that much…" Ren said with no small tone of disbelief.

"It was actually a pretty smart move on Rosie's part, Lotus," Ash spoke up. "Ya see, li'l Lin has a very useful detection semblance called Seismic Sense, which allows her to 'see' by feeling the vibrations on the ground and her sensory skills are strong enough to even detect aura signatures, something that only you, Balto, and Kitten to a lesser extent, can do. While her sense is dulled in industrial areas, it's still good enough to find a few kids that don't have much control over their powers."

"Be that as it may, I find it very unsettling that you let a cat in charge of watching over the kids, even if he is a TGHA…" Pyrrha admitted.

"Have you ever been babysat by a cat? They can be the best sitters out there so long as you treat them with respect. If not…well…you'll face the consequences soon enough…" Baltazar explained with a small smirk.

"I don't know what's odder… The fact that Ruby was ok with having a cat babysit a bunch of kids…or the fact that Baltazar himself was babysat by a cat when he was a kid…" Blake muttered while shaking her head.

"Eh, it's not that odd for me, honestly. I was babysat by a fox and a raven a few times when I was growing up. Akane and Kuro were the best sitters I ever had…" Dia sighed in reminiscence, causing everyone to stare at her strangely.

"…Just what kind of village did you grew up in?" Jaune questioned in a soft…confused tone.

"Can't tell ya! It's a secret punishable by death!" Dia grinned back, causing everyone to sweatdrop at her attitude.

"Right… So, who did you find first, Rubes? If I had to guess, probably Titania, right?" Ash asked.

Ruby nodded in confirmation before she spoke, "Uh huh! Lin sensed her over at the docks and when we got there, she was trying to get Moroz out of the water and stop freezing it…which was a lot easier said than done…"

-_Flashback, Downtown Vale docks-_

"_Hey, Petal Dancer! I found Titania!" Lin shouted while pointing at where she sensed the wayward child._

"_Petal Dancer…?" Ruby repeated, a little happy with the nickname she got, before turning serious and turning to where the young sensor was pointing at and paled at what she saw._

_Over at the docks stood a girl with flowing blonde hair and wearing what appeared to be knight's armor while wielding a sword and flailing it angrily over at the sea, more specifically on the silver haired boy that was ice skating on the sea with no skates and forming ice wherever he moved._

"_Moroz, you idiot, get out of the ocean! You're causing a lot of trouble and I won't stand for it!" Titania shouted angrily._

"_Oh don't be such a wet blanket, Titania! I've done this a bajillion times before with my step-brother Fuyuki! Heck even Master Neve and her daughter Glaciale did this with me! Trust me I'll be fine!" Moroz said dismissively while still skating around._

"_You may be fine but you're disturbing the people on the docks here! If you keep this up, you'll freeze everything and the boats won't be able to get out!" Titania exclaimed._

"_The ice won't last long so the boats will be fine! Don't worry!" Moroz grinned further infuriating the young child. In fact, she was so frustrated that she let out a harsh scream, unconsciously summoning what looked like a small spear from above her, surprising the small audience she and her friend made, including Ruby. Shortly after its creation, however, it suddenly began to shake violently for a short while before rocketing into the docks, specifically to where Moroz was still skating._

_*Crash!*_

"_WAA! TITANIA!"_

"_OH NO!"_

_The spectators were shocked when they saw the spear crush through the ice trail the boy made, which caused him to launch into the air in a panic. Little Titania became extremely frightened and ashamed at this point, since her friend's current predicament was her doing. She wanted to save him, but she was well aware that her powers would only make things worse. She turned around, hoping to find someone who could help, but all she could see were civilians staring at the flying kid, none of which were able to, or unwilling to help. The girl began to cry, tears falling off her right eye only, oddly enough, and began to desperately wish that someone could help._

_*BANG!*_

"_I Got Ya!"_

_*BANG, BANG, BANG!*_

"_WAAA!"_

"_Woo! Made it!"_

_Titania and the other spectators were standing in shock by what they just saw, and the little girl herself feel to her knees and thanked whatever lord that must've heard her for granting her wish. Her caretaker for the day had somehow managed to not only find her, but also saved Moroz by using that odd weapon of hers to launch herself to him and used it to come back to the docks, using the flying ice as platforms to help her get back to land safely. Tears were still falling from her face as she stared at the red hooded girl, unaware of the falling rose petals floating around her, and gave a small jump when she felt someone touch her shoulder._

"_Petal Dancer managed to save Frosty from being food for the sea, didn't she, Queenie?" _

"_Huh? Lin?" Titania asked, remembering that there was only one person out there that would call her that and get away with it._

"_Yo, Madame Iron Britches! Glad we managed to find you!" Lin grinned while patting the armored child's back._

"…_Of course. That's how Ms. Rose was able to find us so quickly." Titania muttered to herself, well aware of how good a sensor the blind child next to her was._

"_Yup! So how about we head over to our new hero and thank her for rescuing the idiot who thought it was a good idea to go ice skating in the ocean?" Lin suggested while gesturing to Ruby, who was still holding a shivering Moroz._

"_Hey…It's ok…you're safe now," The young leader said softly, hoping to calm the frightened child in her arms._

"_I…I'm sorry…" Moroz muttered in shame. "I…I just wanted…to have some fun. I used to skate with my master and siblings all the time and I missed it so bad that I wanted to do it again, and Kasai made a hole in the fence and I thought it would be my chance to do it so-"_

"_Calm down, you don't need to explain. Just knowing that I made it in time to save you is enough for me." Ruby muttered kindly before giving the boy a hug, unaware of the tears forming in his eyes or the mist forming around the pair until…_

"_Uh…Wah…UWAAAAAAAAAH!"_

_*FSHHH!*_

"_EEK! COLD!"_

"_Ms. Ruby!" Titania shouted out in surprise, unconsciously summoning a sword in midair and inadvertently launching it at her friend's savior._

_*SHINK!*_

"_AH! MY CLOAK!"_

"…_Well, as the old saying goes, 'When in Atlas, do what the Atlesians do'," Lin shrugged before stomping the ground with her bare feet._

_*RUMBLE*_

_*BAM!*_

"_OW! NOT FUNNY, LIN!"_

_-End Flashback-_

"…Yeah, I can see Lin doing that to you. She may see you as her hero, but that won't stop her from being her mischievous self." Ash said with a solemn nod.

"So even after saving them, you still end up being tormented…" Pyrrha stated in sympathy, feeling a little sorry for the young leader.

"I told you they're little monsters! And that was just the ones that liked me in the end! The ones that barely tolerated me were worse! And don't even get me started on Kasai!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Kasai was the last one that you had to find, right?" Levy spoke up curiously, "I remember Velvet talking about him a few times. He's a bit of a wild child if I recall and he also as quite the unusual semblance. Something about pure fire manipulation?"

"He kinda has a more elemental version of my semblance, Levy," Yang explained, "While I grow stronger with every physical blow I get hit with, the little spitfire grows stronger by eating fire. He can even summon flames from his body and manipulate it, but he doesn't really know how to control his powers all that well yet."

"Really? How did you know all this?" Ren asked, curious as to how the blonde knew such information.

"Oh, I just asked him before I chucked him into the water while teaching him to swim last time I volunteered at the daycare. He's one of the reasons why I'm banned there," Yang stated with a grin, causing everyone to stare at her blankly.

"Well… There's no way I'm letting you teach my sister how to swim then," Baltazar said in a lax tone, causing his former roommate to quirk an eyebrow at his direction.

"Feh, if she's a good a swimmer as you are, then it'll be a lost cause to teach her…" Yang scoffed before adopting a pondering, "And I doubt the gravy method would work on her either. Didn't work with you, no matter how much we tried."

"Ah, I remember that…" Baltazar muttered before giving off a content sigh, "That was the most delicious prank we ever pulled. Especially with all that high grade mashed potatoes we managed to steal from the cafeteria for the pool. We gotta do something like that again."

"Definitely," Yang agreed with a sinister smile, causing everyone to stare at each other with worried expressions.

"Weiss, make sure those two don't pull that off, please?" Jaune requested, knowing the heiress had the best chance to reign in the two former partners if they go overboard.

"Not a problem," Weiss said with a nod.

"Back to the story, though. How did you find the little hothead? The little guy can be very difficult to find whenever he wants to be hidden, and that's with just a small classroom. I can't imagine all the places where he can hide if he was loose in the city," Ash asked.

"Ugh…It was a nightmare trying to find the twerp…" Ruby groaned, "Every time we'd find him, he sprints off and disappears so fast that Lin couldn't properly track him. He stayed up high too, so her semblance was practically useless. Moroz and Titania decided to help out too, thankfully, and because of how close those three are, they were able to help me find and corner him…"

-_Flashback, Vale City Rooftops-_

"_Why are we up here again!?" Ruby shouted, very upset and confused as to why she had to bring a bunch of kids to the rooftop of a store and risk them falling off trying to find another kid._

"_Kasai really likes high places, rooftops being his favorite spots, because of his dream of one day being able to fly like a dragon someday," Titania explained with her arms crossed._

"_Problem is, though, the flame brain isn't all that smart in the head, and likes to jump off rooftops in order to learn how to fly with his powers," Moroz said dismissively, shocking the young leader, "He had some success before, but not much to be of much use. If he tries to jump off from here, though, it won't be pretty."_

"_Uh…a-a-are you guys s-s-sure I should b-b-b-be here?" Lin asked nervously, a stark contrast from her normal cocky demeanor._

_Ruby, Titania and Moroz stared at the quivering girl before them in confusion for a short while, unsure of what to was happening to her, before Titania's eyes went wide in realization for a moment before becoming ashamed once more._

"_That's right. You can't handle places like this where your semblances can't work properly, can you…?" Titania muttered before walking to the scared girl and bowed, "I'm sorry for bringing you up here with us and forgetting your fear. Please, hit me so that I may be properly punished!"_

"_What?! No! Why the heck would I do that, you crazy person!" Lin shouted while turning to her side, causing Ruby and Moroz to stare at her oddly._

"_Uh…Lin? You're yelling at a chimney spout…" Moroz muttered. _

"_Gah! Can we just find Kasai and get out of here! I can't see anything on this roof and I'm so nervous that I can't even sense anything properly!" Lin complained and Ruby frowned, knowing that the blind girl was well in her rights to shout out like she just did._

"_Don't worry, Lin. I'm sure we'll find Kasai in-"_

"_YAAAAAAHOOOOO!"_

"_Found him…" Moroz said in a bored tone while pointing at a nearby roof, where they saw a kid with shaggy orange hair, a fire red shirt with beige shorts, black sandals and a black, scale patterned scarf around his neck, flying across the buildings with flames flying out of his feet. The sight of the rocketing kid startled both Titania and Ruby, and caused the young armored girl to rush towards the edge of the roof to shout at him._

"_KASAI! What are you doing, you reckless fool?! Are you trying to hurt yourself!?" Titania shouted._

"_HA! This is nothing! You should see what my dad can do! He's awesomer than I am at this!" Kasai grinned as he descended to another roof and jumped off of it, launching him into the air once more and began flying again._

"_He is going to kill himself," Moroz said bluntly._

"_Uh huh." Lin nodded._

"_The blasted fool will die if he doesn't stop!" Titania shouted, shocking Ruby since she wasn't aware that the kids already know about death._

"_You guys just don't know how to have fun! Especially you, snowcone!" Kasai taunted while zooming past the others._

"_What did you call me, Charcoal Brain!?" Moroz shouted with a fist in the air._

"_Who're you're calling Charcoal Brain!?"The fire child yelled back, his flames intensifying and launching him farther into the air, before abruptly dissipating, causing everyone to stare at him in shock._

"…_Uh oh. Out of juice." Kasai muttered, blinking twice in apparent surprise, before gravity began its work and dropped him from the sky, scaring the quartet of spectators that were after him._

"_KASIA!" _

"_YOU HOT HEATED DUMMY"  
>"OH MY GOD, IS HE FALLING?!"<em>

"_Not if I have anything to say about it!" Ruby shouted, Crescent Rose out and on the roof, and with a squeeze of the trigger, she launched herself into the air, right towards the falling kid and grabbed him, landing on the edge of the roof across from her in the process._

"_She got him!" Titania shouted happily._

"_She did? Awesome!" Lin cheered, very proud of her hero._

"_Huh…now I feel bad for freezing her when we first met…" Moroz muttered._

"_Hey? You ok now?" Ruby asked kindly to the kid in her arms, fully expecting him to be a nervous wreck like the last kid was, but instead of tears of fear, pearls of laughter was heard, which confused the sniper greatly._

"_WOOHOO! That was great!" Kasai shouted happily before turning up to his savior with a wide grin. "You were super cool just now, just like a real Huntress! Oh man, I can't wait 'till I become a huntsman! I'm gonna be as awesome as you and my dad!"_

"_Wow… So I won you over, huh?" Ruby smiled as she placed the kid down before her. "Well at least this is all taken care of. Now all I have to do is-"_

_*crumble…*_

"…"

_Ruby and Kasai stared at each other blankly as soon as they heard the sound, well aware of what it was. Not really wanting to look, the young leader looked down to where she was standing and saw a multitude of cracks on the rooftop edge she was standing on and a load of gravel and brick pieces falling off at a rapid rate. She also noticed that there was no one in the streets at the moment, and she would've thought more about it before she felt her footing giving way._

"…_Why me?" Ruby whined before the edge gave way, causing Ruby to fall off the roof._

"_AH! CLOAK LADY!" Kasai shouted out and was about to reach out to her when he felt something hot zoom past him._

"_HA! Gotcha!" A familiar voice shouted out happily, one that caused Ruby's eyes to go wide as soon as she felt a hand grab your arm. "Didn't expect you to go rooftop jumping, Sis. Might want to take a few lessons from Blake before pulling off something like this."_

"_Yang! You got my message!" The young leader cried out with a wide smile as soon as she looked up to see the large, mega-watt grin on her sister's face._

"_Uh huh! We all did. Blake managed to locate you and led us over here. She and Weiss are over with the other kids right now, so you're in the clear," Yang explained while pulling her sister up. She then gestured to the roof across the street to her, and Ruby saw Blake and Weiss standing beside the three kids, the pair having uncomfortable expressions on their faces as the dealt with the exhausted children. Chuckling to herself, she turned to the blonde brawler once more and gave her a quick, yet tight hug._

"_Thanks for helping me, Yang," Ruby muttered happily, grateful towards her sister._

"_No worries, Ruby. Just doing my job as your big sister," Yang grinned as she broke the hug and rubbed her sister's hair in amusement_

"_Holy Cow, Cloak Lady, you're so lucky! I can't believe you got such an awesome person like Dragon Lady as your sister!" Kasai exclaimed while jumping eagerly towards the blonde brawler._

"_Heh, nice to see you too, Kasai. Looks like you've gotten much bigger since the last time I saw ya," Yang grinned before adopting a more mischievous expression. "By the way, mind giving my sister one of your special hugs like the one you gave me after I taught you how to swim? I'm sure she'll love it!"_

"_Really?! Sure!" Kasai said happily before turning to Ruby with his arms wide, and Ruby's face began to pale as soon as she saw flames coming out of his arms._

"_Uh… I don't think that-"_

"_Here I come, Cloak Lady! Dragon Style Blazing Hug!"_

_*Fwoosh!*_

"_WAAA! HOT!"_

"_Hey, Ruby! I thought I was supposed to be the hot one here?" Yang grinned teasingly as she stared at her now blazing sister in amusement._

"_YANG! THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" Ruby cried out as she began to run around, burning petals flying around her as she sprinted. "NOW HURRY UP AND PUT ME OUT! I DON'T THINK MY HOOD CAN TAKE ANY MORE ABUSE!"_

_-End Flashback-_

"Wow…you did not have a good time that day, did you," Ren muttered with a mild tone of amusement in his voice.

"You try being set on fire multiple times in one day and see how you like it!" Ruby shouted at the calm gunblader.

"No thanks. I'd rather have a day full of blasts over a day full of flames any day," The magenta eyed teen smirked while giving his explosive happy partner a soft glance, who returned it with a beaming smile and a tight hug before giving him a long kiss on the cheek, causing the others to smile widely at the show of affection.

"Smooth, dude. Ten out of ten," Ash grinned while holding a small sign with the number ten on it.

"Aww, that's so cute!" Pyrrha gushed before turning to Jaune in a pouty tone, "Why can't you be more romantic like that?"

"Hey, I have no idea how to be suave like him! I'm still learning the ropes on romance myself." Jaune admitted with his hands up and a sheepish grin.

"Baltazar's new to dating as well and he has his sweet moments, like the time he sung me a lullaby to get me to rest after I overworked myself the week before finals," Weiss stated, giving the lightning ninja near the door a soft smile as she spoke.

"I'm just glad that it worked. I don't sing that well, so I was presently surprised to see you sleeping as soon as I finished," Baltazar admitted with a shrug, but the happy tone in his voice was not missed by anyone.

"Ah man! I really need to step up my game…" Jaune muttered while looking away from the laughing faces of his friends.

"Haha… Well… Trials of romance aside, I take it things worked out in the end, did they Ruby?" Levy asked politely after calming down from her giggle fit.

"Eh…Kinda." Ruby said in a sheepish tone, "Things did calm down with the kids since Yang and the others were with me. They were really curious as to what the others can do in a fight and their curiosity was enough to keep them occupied, but the whole time we were heading back, I was worried about Charcoal and what the kids might've done to him."

-_Flashback, Street to Konohana Daycare-_

"_Oh…I hope Charcoal was able to watch over the kids alright…" Ruby muttered as she and her companions crossed the street._

"_Ruby, relax, ok? I'm sure Charcoal is taking care of the kids as well as he is able to, so don't worry so much," Weiss stated in confidence._

"_I still find it unsettling that you let a cat no bigger than an average house cat watch over a bunch of kids, though," Blake muttered unsurely._

"_Charcoal's no ordinary kitty, Blake, you know that." Yang said, reminding her partner that the black furball had helped her and Sun during the incident with Roman not that long ago._

"_Is that black cat of yours really all that special?" Titania asked respectfully, curious as to how a small housecat could watch over a bunch of rowdy children if her newfound friend wasn't able to, save her and the other children with her._

"_He is. My godfather was the one who trained and raised him, and if Charcoal is anything like his predecessors, then I'm sure he can handle a few children," Weiss said with a kind smile._

"_Predecorators?" Kasai asked, tilting his head in confusion._

"_Predecessors, you idiot. It means someone who used to be in charge or something like that before he was replaced. It's not that hard to figure out…" Moroz said smugly._

"_Who're you calling an idiot!?" Kasai shouted and proceeded to argue with the ice themed boy once more, causing the others to sigh in exasperation._

"_Are they always like this?" Blake asked Lin, having a fair amount of respect for the blind child for trying to become a huntress with her disability._

"_You have no idea…" Lin grumbled._

"_Oh my! I didn't expect you to be out here!" A surprised voice spoke up, and Ruby and the kids paled when they saw Sakuya walk up to them with her hand covering her mouth and her eyes wide._

"_Hey, Saki! What's up, girl!?" Yang grinned, completely ignoring her sister's dreaded expression, and gave the kimono wearing girl a tight hug, which she returned happily._

"_Ah, Yang! It's been so long! I haven't seen you since mother banned you from entering the daycare!" Sakyua chirped._

"_Yeah, I know, but hey, can't win them all, right?" Yang shrugged, causing Sakuya to laugh._

"_Indeed! So what are you and your friends doing here with my children? Did something happen?" The caretaker asked, causing Ruby to look away nervously._

"_Uh…well…you see…there was…kind of…"_

"_Long story short, a few of your kids got out and Ruby went to get them while leaving a cat in charge of the others," Blake summarized with her arms crossed._

"_BLAKE!" Ruby cried out with a large blush on her face while Sakyua gasped in surprise._

"_Oh dear, it happened again? I had hoped that the children would be more behaved since it was their last day, but I suppose they were too restless for their own good," The older woman said, causing Ruby, Weiss and Blake to stare at her in shock._

"…_This kind of thing happened before?" Weiss asked in a deadpanned tone._

"_Oh yeah. It happens more often than you think. It's the main reason why the daycare asks Beacon Students to volunteer there so often, because the little brats are too much to handle for regular people." Yang said with her hands on her hips, "That, and Professor Ozpin offers extra credit to those who volunteer here sometimes, since it can be considered a mission in some cases."_

"_What kind of mission can be simulated by babysitting a bunch of kids?" Blake couldn't help but ask._

"_Eh, I dunno. Probably some high stakes protection mission or something. I wasn't really paying attention all that much when Coco explained it to me after I got banned." Yang shrugged._

"_So…Ms. Sakaya? I'm not in trouble for letting some of the kids escape? Or letting a cat watch over the kids while I was gone?" Ruby asked nervously, still unsure as to what was happening at the moment._

"_Of course not. I'm just happy you managed to find the kids safely. These in particular can be quite the troublemakers," Sakuya smiled while kneeling to her charges, who all blushed and turned away in embarrassment, before standing up turned her smile to the other girls. "And as for the cat thing, I'm well aware of how efficient animal caretakers can be, especially those who are raised by professional trainers, which is what your cat is, I'm sure."_

"_He is very well trained. I can attest to that," Weiss said in a confident tone, well aware of her godfather's talent in animal training._

"_Hehe. I'll be the judge of that." Sakuya giggled as they reached the daycare. "And Yang, Mom's away for a while so it's safe for you to visit. I won't tell."_

"_Thanks Saki!" Yang grinned._

_With a smile towards the blonde, the caretaker reached for the door and opened it, and was greeted with a pleasant surprise, with Yang and Weiss looking pleased as well, while Ruby, Blake and the kids stared at what was before them in shock._

_The kids were sitting in a neat semi-circle, all of them happy and surprisingly well behaved, with Charcoal sitting on a podium with a bow on its collar and a small graduation hat on its head. Behind the cat was a whiteboard with what looked like a detailed lesson on Dust that was simple enough for the kids to understand. The black cat was pointing at the board with its tail, meowing as if it was giving a lecture to the kids, and the kids themselves looked like they were understanding everything the feline was saying. It was quite the sight for the newcomers._

"…_Is this really happening?" Blake muttered in disbelief._

"_Uh huh!" That's Charcoal for ya!" Yang grinned with her arms crossed._

"_What did I tell you? My godfather trains only the best felines out there, and Charcoal is no exception!" Weiss bragged, her voice full of pride towards the cat the former huntsman raised._

"_I gotta say, I'm impressed. He's very well trained, and even capable of teaching! I can honestly say that he is one of the best caretakers we've ever had!" Sakuya smiled._

"_So the furball's that good huh?" Lin asked curiously._

"_It looks like it, though I doubt a lesson like this would be all that effective on you Lin…" Titania muttered, seeing that the lesson was more visual that oral._

"_Still, it would've been cool to have a cat as a teacher, eh? It'd be like that part of that wizard movie I saw before…" Moroz admitted with a grin._

"_Then what are we waiting for?! Let's go meet our new cat teacher!" Kasai cheered, causing him and the other kids to rush over to the rest of their friends and sat attentively to their new instructor._

"_Hehe! Well, looks like things worked out well in the end, eh Sis?" The brawler chuckled towards the young leader, but frowned when she didn't get a response. "…Ruby?"_

"_Over there," Blake said in a monotone, pointing at the depressed mass of red that was sitting on the corner, a cloud of depression on her head._

"_Uh…what?" Weiss muttered in confusion._

"_A cat is a better caretaker than me… A cat is a better caretaker than me… A cat is a better caretaker than me…" Ruby mumbled repeatedly, growing more and more depressed the more she spoke, and causing the others to sweatdrop at her actions._

"_Oh…Well… She's gonna be like this for a while." Yang stated sheepishly._

"_You two are definitely the oddest pair of siblings I've ever seen…" Blake muttered._

_-End Flashback-_

"Ouch. Being owned by a cat. That is definitely a blow to the pride right there…" Jaune muttered in sympathy.

"Being owned by an animal in general is a pretty big blow, Jaune. I should know…" Dia admitted, her voice growing soft as she began mumbling darkly about crack-shot monkeys and genius owls.

"So in the end, the Charcoal became a huge hit and the kids practically begged us to bring him back after the daycare opens up again. You can imagine how Ruby felt after hearing that," Yang explained with a grin, expertly ignoring Dia's rambling with ease, and gestured to her pouting sister, who was mumbling about showoff furballs and using cats as target practice.

"Will it be ok for Charcoal to visit the kids again, Baltazar?" Weiss asked, knowing that, while the little cat spent a lot of time with team RWBY more often than not, it still belonged to her godfather and, to that extent, her boyfriend.

"I have to ask Pop to make sure, but I think it'll be fine for him to hang out every once in a while. Just remember that the little guy has his own responsibilities, so he won't be available all that often." Baltazar stated.

"What kind of responsibilities does a cat like him have?" Nora asked.

"I dunno. He's my dad's cat, so I don't have full rein over the little mate like he dose…" The ninja shrugged before turning to Weiss. "Which also means that we'll be seeing him less and less pretty soon. Pop's planning on using him for deliveries again and he's the fastest cat he raised. He's also aware of this, which is why he's been spending time with you so often, because he knows he won't be able to pretty soon."

"Aww… I'm going to miss him…" Weiss muttered with a pout, with many of the other girls voicing their sadness for the soon to be departing cat.

"Forget about the cat! We got much bigger things to talk about!" Ruby cried out before zooming to Ash once more. "Alright, Ash, you got your story! Now tell me the secret of taming the monsters already!"

"Whoa there, Little Red, aren't you getting a little worked up here?" Ash grinned sheepishly with his hands up in a feeble attempt to keep the irritated leader from getting too close, lest he suffer the wrath of the blonde dragon glaring at him.

"Just hurry up and tell him, you fiend." Yang muttered darkly, causing Blake to turn to her with a mild look of surprise.

"Hey…that's my line…" She mumbled.

"Ok, ok! I'll tell! Just relax, alright! I don't want to get any hotter than I already am! And not in the good way!" The redhead shouted, causing the sisters to calm down, before he turned to Ruby and stared at her right in the eyes, to which she stared back, her own eyes still reflecting the annoyance from earlier.

"Well?"

"Do you have any cookies?" Ash asked, causing everyone in the room to facefault at the question.

"What do cookies have to do with Ruby winning over a bunch…of…" Ren asked, trailing off as he realized what the powerhouse was insinuating.

"So you caught on eh? Good on ya, my deadpanned dual-wielding dude," Ash smirked before turning to Ruby once more. "Listen, Rosie. Kids, especially little ones like the ones that you had to deal with, can be easily won over by treats and promises of awesome stuff like your scythe, which I'm willing to bet that you didn't show off one bit during your stay with the kids. Trust me on this; one good twirl with that weapon of yours or a bunch of cookies that I _know_ you keep hidden in your dress, will get the kids to love you more than Jaune loves those awesome X-Ray and Vav comics he reads all the time.

"That's a lot of love right there," Nora said while looking at Jaune, who was looking away nervously from Pyrrha's disapproving stare.

"You mean to tell me…that I had…the keys to winning those monsters over…this whole time…and I didn't know?" Ruby muttered in despair, a cloud of depression raining on her head once more as she began to realize the simple solution was literally under her nose.

"…We definitely need you to get more babysitting experience, Sis." Yang sighed while patting her upset sister before turning to the boys of BLAD. "You think she can watch over your siblings sometime, guys? I'm sure watching over them would help her get better at watching over the others if she ends up being sent over to the daycare again."

"Uh…I'm not sure she can handle Bassie and Koma. Those two can put those kids in the daycare to shame with their rough housing. Dee can attest to that," Ash said while pointing to his now depressed partner, who had her head down and hair covering her eyes, an aura of sadness and annoyance as she recalled the times she spent with the little monsters the redhead called his siblings.

"Watching over Cera won't work all that well either. She's too mild mannered to be much of a challenge." Baltazar stated before adopting a pondering pose, "Then again, she has gotten more…exuberant lately after fully unlocking her aura and discovering her semblance when we were away. If Ruby can handle an overexcited flying super cub that can drive even Levy insane after a while, then I'll let mom know…"

"Really!? The little munchkin actually got Levy irritated?!" Yang shouted in surprise, with everyone else going wide eyed at the news as well, before turning to Levy, who now had an embarrassed blush on her face and began pushing her index fingers together nervously.

"Uh…yeah…I wasn't really in the best of moods at the time and I…may have…lashed out on a few people during vacation. Cera included… I'd rather wait until later before telling you guys about it," Levy admitted shyly.

"Now this story is one that I have to hear…" Blake said, wanting to know what happened that pushed the saint like patience of her fellow bibliophile to its limits.

"Let's save that story for later. If I recall, Yang has to tell us another story involving another one of her teammates," Pyrrha spoke up while giving her white haired friend a quick glance.

"What?! Oh come on, can we please skip that story!? I really don't want anyone to know about it!" Weiss cried out.

"Well, considering what almost happened, I say we should tell them about it, just in case something like that were to happen once more," Blake pointed out, causing Weiss to groan in irritation.

"Ok, fine! Tell them! Just make sure someone restrains Baltazar when he hears this! I don't want him to go on a murder spree after this is all over!" Weiss shouted, causing everyone besides her team to look at her in confusion, especially a certain ninja.

"I might go on a what now?" Baltazar muttered in a quiet voice, not believing what he just heard.

"Noted. Now then, who wants to hear the story about how Weiss was almost arranged to be married to an uber snobby heir of a rival company!" Yang grinned while clapping her hands, causing Ruby to groan in exasperation, Weiss to pale drastically, Blake to facepalm at her partner's lack of tact, and the other two teams to go silent for a moment to process what they just heard.

"WHAT?!" The girls cried out.

"…Suddenly I don't want to hear this story anymore." Jaune muttered in fear as he felt what can be accurately described as killing intent filling the room.

"You and me both…" Ren said, not daring to stare at the infuriated lightning ninja at the moment.

"…Is Baltazar Azul going to have to choke a bitch?" Ash asked darkly, he himself getting a little angry at the thought of a friend of his being in an arranged marriage, something he was highly against, being the romantic that he was.

"I do believe I am going to have to choke a bitch…" Baltazar agreed in a frigid tone, his eyes a fierce electric blue, his pupils so narrow they were nearly gone, his hand hovering over his katana and looking like he was about to bolt the minute he hears what happened.

"I am going to kill you after this, Yang…" Weiss muttered before going over to Baltazar and began trying to calm him down, knowing how futile it'll be since he'll get angry as soon as he hears the story. She just hope that, in the end, he'll keep the carnage to a minimum at least. She'd rather he'd go wild on the fool who tried to have his way with her during break, but she'll take what she can get.

Author's note:

Hope you guys enjoyed this story! I'm still sorry it took me a while for me to finish this, but hey, stuff happens. I am also pleased to see so many people are still liking my first story even after all this time. Seriously, nearly 100 favorites for my first work?! You guys are the best. And now for a bit of news regarding my works. On Christmas Day, I plan to do a bit of a multiple update, as my Christmas present for you all. No Christmas special, sadly, as I doubt I'll have time for it with all that's coming up, but I do plan on having the next part of Hymn of Reminiscence up along with Petting Zoo's next chapter done and uploaded by Christmas. However, instead of a special, I plan to upload something even more special. What I'm going to upload will be a secret until then. With that, have a great and safe day, my readers and Happy Holidays! Also, hope you like the references to certain characters in the form of the four kids that Ruby spent the most time with.


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